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A Great Weekend Read: How America Lost Its Way

Posted by Larry Doyle on June 8, 2013 11:59 AM |

I am a big fan of Niall Ferguson.

I so respect and appreciate the way this history professor at Harvard thinks and writes. More often that not after reading his work I find myself thinking, “he’s right.” I find his work to be fully consistent with the thoughts and opinions I try to promote here at Sense on Cents.

To that end, I will soon be picking up a copy of Ferguson’s soon to be released book, The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. As one reviewer wrote,

Professor Ferguson maintains that key maladies with western institutions encompass meager regulatory enforcement in the financial sector, rotten rule of law, government encroachment in the civil society, and breakdown of social contract between the generations (Edmund Burke’s concept of contract in which the current fiscal policies cannot inexorably create huge debts at the expense of the young and the unborn). Professor Ferguson disagrees with Keynesian economists who are advocates of low interest rate and issuance of public debt to stimulate economic growth.

The Wall Street Journal addresses Ferguson’s work in what I think is a great weekend read, How America Lost Its Way.

Enjoy the weekend.

Larry Doyle

Isn’t  it time or overtime to subscribe to all my work via e-mail, an RSS feed, on Twitter or Facebook.

I have no business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 8th, 2013 at 11:59 AM and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • fred

    LD,

    To put it simply, big government must justify its existence and protect its interests. Special interests make it all but impossible for government spending to rightsize. What is lost (or more accurately saved) in one election and over the ensuing administrative term is regained over the next.

    In due time, given the current herniation of Keynsian economics, being in posession of the world’s reserve currency will turn out to be more of a curse than a blessing.

    The paradox of wisdom: The less you know, the more you can believe but unless you can believe you cannot truly know.

    Wise up America (every American should make a habit of reading Sense on Cents) and let’s repledge our allegiance to the system of beliefs that made this country great while insisting that our public servants and legal system do the same.

    Permissum nos operor pugna.

  • Rick

    larry….
    when I disagree with you, it’s usually about these two points which I would state as one point in another way….

    meager regulatory enforcement in the financial sector, rotten rule of law

    anything that distorts the natural functioning of markets serves as a minimizer of optimum results in a free economy. We as a society may indulge ourselves with a small degree of this type of intrusion (taxes being the primary example) because we deem a greater good for ALL of society as being a neccesity (armed forces, police etc), but the primary dicta has to always be kept in mind.

    That encompasses distortions by governments and distortions by crony capitalists enlisting government’s vast powers and influence. That includes privatizing everthing from Postal service to Eductation and Penal Institutions.

    The piece of legislation that I’d wipe off the boards first if I had that right which in the doing would probably cause the government, and human freedom to explode to the greater good of all, would be minimum wage When we allowed that legislation to pass, we admitted that government has the right to set the price of labor and denies individuals to function on their own behalf.

    Think the 40% life ending unemployment in our inner cities a place where we just move kids from dependency to prison to our detriment. Aside from the immorality of it all, we suffer a tremendous loss of human capital. [rather than a matter of law..hand in hand with this should be the encouragement of technology to grapple with drugs and addiction….another capital and people killer]

    The second piece of rules and regs I’d do away with? I’d make everyone Catholic in 1960 terms. No divorce if there are kids involved. None. Ever. You have kids, you own them for their adolescent lives. Society may want to help in extremis (autism or other illness), but you break it you own it type of thinking here would transform society to one of personal responsibility and mutual respect.

    Just sayin –but otherwise we agree pretty much and are on the same side on these things, but would just approach them differently (increasingly, I distrust government to regulate anything….]

  • Van

    PROFESSOR FERGUSON’S OBSERVATIONS ARE VERY MUCH IN ACCORD WITH THE FACTS.

    IT IS ALWAYS GOOD TO OBSERVE SMART PEOPLE LISTING AND COMMENTING ON THINGS THAT YOU ( AND MANY OTHERS ) HAVE MAINTAINED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

    THE HEART OF THE MATTER, HOWEVER, GREW FROM THE ADOPTION OF A BANKING SYSTEM FROM ENGLAND, BY NONE OTHER THAN OUR FIRST PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES,, WHICH WAS CREATED AS A METHOD OF PAYING DEBT REMAINING FROM OUR RECENT WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.

    FOR YEARS THIS WAS THE ONLY BANK. IT WAS A FEDERAL BANK. IT COULD LOAN OUT TEN TIMES THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IT HAD.ON DEPOSIT. THE BANKERS (NOW REFERRED TO AS BANKSTERS) QUICKLY LEARNED, OR THEY ALREADY KNEW, HOW TO TAKE THIS WONDERFUL DEAL, TO THEM, WHERE THEY GOT INTEREST ON TEN TIMES THE MONEY THEY HAD, WHEN COUNTING DEPOSITS OF THE POPULACE, AND INCREASE THE AMOUNTS THAT THEY COULD CHARGE INTEREST ON , OR GAMBLE WITH, OFTEN VIRTUALLY WITHOUT LIMIT.

    THE CORRUPT AND CRIMINAL PRACTICES OF THE BANKSTERS , NOW HAVING CONTROL OF OUR “ELECTED” HAVE NOW DEVELOPED AND PROCEEDED TO THE POINT BEST DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK BY ” MATT TAIBBI” WHICH WAS GIVEN TO ME YESTERDAY BY A LAWYER CLIENT OF MINE. WITH THE TITLE OF ” GRIFTOPIA ” ( I WAS WARNED THAT IT CONTAINS MANY WORDS NOT OFTEN FOUND IN MY VOCABULARY.) IT IS WRITTEN IN DETAIL AS AN INVESTIGATIVE PROFESSIONAL IS WANT TO DO. PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO. READ IT.

    THE HEART OF THE MATTER IS GREED, THE WORSHIP OF MONEY, THE UTTER CORRUPT, CRIMINAL, AND MANIPULATED SYSTEM OF BANKING (AND ALL THINGS RELATED THERE TO) FIRST EMBRACED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON MANY REARS AGO.

    COUNT THE YEARS. HISTORY INFORMS US THAT OUR TIME HAS COME, AND GONE. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?

    WHEN ANY OF THESE PUNDITS COME TO THE REALIZATION THAT THE ONLY SOLUTION IS SELF SUSTAINABILITY, PERSONALLY AND FOR COUNTRIES, PERHAPS THEY WILL TALK ABOUT SOMETHING BESIDES MONEY. SOMETHING BESIDES THE BENT FOR ALL TO BE CONSUMERS,

    PERHAPS TO RECOGNIZE THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF PROVIDING FOR WATER , FOOD , AND SHELTER. SOMETHING OTHER THAT CHASING FOSSIL FUELS WHICH IS THE SAME AS MONEY

    PERHAPS THEY WILL NOT MAKE REFERENCE TO THE MID WEST AS A ” DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR” WHEN THEY REALIZE THE OIL AND GAS RESOURCES THAT HAVE BEEN AND ARE BEING USED, (NOT OUT OF NECESSITY) TO DEPLETE THE OGALLALA AQIFER WILL RESULT IN NOTHING MORE THAN A DUST BOWL, AND OIL MONEY FOR THE FEW. ( READ MY BOOK) THIS BRAINWASHING THAT HAS ORCHESTRATED THIS DEPENDENCE ON OIL IS A LIE.

Larry Doyle

Larry Doyle A Wall Street veteran's views and instincts on the markets, economy, and all things financial.







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